Aberdeen Trades Union Council (ATUC) is the body made up of affiliated trade union branches and organisations working in the

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

area to promote the interests of workers in the region. The ATUC provides services to affiliated branches on a wide range of industrial, social and community issues and is affiliated to the STUC. It has an office based in Aberdeen,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

History

Trade unionists in Aberdeen first formed a committee in 1846, in order to support joiners who were on strike. This committee lasted for three years, and no further organisation was established until 1868, when stonemasons in the town held a ten-week strike. John Jessiman of the Associated Carpenters and Joiners of Scotland founded the Aberdeen United Trades Council, with the aim of establishing a conciliation board to resolve future disputes. This was not achieved, but the council endured. Originally, thirteen trade union branches affiliated, but by 1873 it had more than fifty delegates. Even by the 1880s, the council represented only 2,000 workers, but its ability to support unions on strike, campaign for shorter working hours and the municipalisation of utilities, gave it prominent role in the city. Socialists increasingly took leading roles on the council, focusing on organising unskilled workers, and setting up a union of women workers and the Scottish Farm Servants' Union. In 1890, it finally achieved its aim of establishing a conciliation board but, since its rulings were not binding, it achieved little, considering only nine cases by 1906. The council first began electoral activity by opposing the re-election of

Lord Provost of Aberdeen The Lord Provost of Aberdeen is the convener of the Aberdeen City local authority in Scotland. They are elected by the city council and serve not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city. They are equivalent in m ...

George Jamieson. By 1879, it was backing favoured candidates in the School Board election, and it first supported independent labour candidates in the 1885 local elections, with James Forbes and George Maconnachie elected. In 1891, it was a founding affiliate of the

Scottish United Trades Councils Labour Party The Scottish United Trades Councils Labour Party, also known as the Scottish Trades Councils Independent Labour Party, was a Scottish labour party. The party originated in a meeting held in Edinburgh on 8 August 1891 with representatives of var ...

, and sponsored Henry Hyde Champion in Aberdeen South at the 1892 general election, although he could only take third place in the poll. At the 1895 general election, there was another independent labour candidate,

John Lincoln Mahon John Lincoln Mahon (8 June 1865 – 19 November 1933) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician, best known as a prominent socialist activist. Mahon was born in Edinburgh, to Irish parents, with the surname "McMahon". He followed in his fath ...

, but the council eventually decided not to back his candidacy. The council also engaged with the broader trade union movement. It hosted the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

in Aberdeen in 1884, and in 1895 it hosted a meeting of Scottish trade unions and trades councils which led to the formation of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), in 1897. In 1973, it became the leading organisation in the new Grampian Federation of Trades Councils. Early in its history, the council met at the Queens Rooms on Union Street, but in 1892 it purchased its own headquarters on Belmont Street, and four years later opened a purpose-built trades hall, with murals by Douglas Strachan. It relocated to a former warehouse in 1956, then to its social club, and now once more meets at hired rooms. The trades council continued to grow until 1920, when it reached a peak affiliated membership of 16,684. That year, it formed a council of action to oppose British intervention in the Polish-Soviet War. It co-ordinated local activity during the 1926 UK general strike, then during the 1930s focused on organising workers who were not trade union members. From 1918, the council was known as the Aberdeen Trades and Labour Council, and incorporated the local Labour Party. This arrangement ended in 1935, and it broke all links with the party in 1937 in order to take part in the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

's National Unemployed Workers' Movement and United Front Against Fascism. While a merger with the NUWM was proposed, this did not occur, and the council soon returned to the Labour Party. The council remained prominent in the STUC as the Aberdeen Trades Council and began growing again, membership reaching a new peak of 26,000 in 1980. Since then, its membership has declined in line with the Scottish trade union movement. In 2003, it was officially renamed as the Aberdeen Trades Union Council.

Secretaries

:1868: Alexander Rennie :1877: William Brown :1878: John W. Annand :1885: James Forbes :1887: William Johnston :1907: G. A. Fraser :1913: James Balfour :1925: G. R. Mcintosh :1935: William Urquhart :1937: George Maitland :as of 1939: William McLean Brown :1948: Jimmy Milne :1969: :as of 1980: Ron Webster :1994: James Lamond :1998: :until 2012: Sultan Feroz :2012: Brian Carroll :2014: Nathan Morrison :2015: Laura McDonald :2016: ''Post vacant'' :2017: John Connon and Gerry McCabe :2018: Fiona Napier :2019 Fiona Napier

Presidents

:1868: Alexander Kidd :1875: Thomas Gill :1877: George Taylor :1879: William Anderson :1882: William Elphinstone :1883: James C. Thompson :1886: George Bisset :1889: William Livingstone :1890: Thomas Nicol :1895: John Keir :1898: Alexander Robertson :1900: John H. Elric :1903: H. H. Duncan :1911:

Joseph Forbes Duncan Joseph Forbes Duncan (3 June 1879 – 1 December 1964) was a Scottish people, Scottish trade unionist and politician. Born in Boat of Bridge in Banffshire, Duncan grew up in Ruthriston near Aberdeen and was educated at Robert Gordon's College. H ...

:1913: David Palmer :1918: James C Allan :1919: George Catto :1922: G. R. McIntosh :1923: W. Williamson :1925: Thomas Brown :1927: P. Irvine :1928: Charles Bathgate :1929: Robert A. R. Fraser :1930: Robert Raffan :1935: M. Hetherington :1938: James J. Stewart : :1952: William James Fraser : :1969: James Lamond : :1982: Jurgen Thomaneck :1990s: Sultan Feroz :2014: Alan Robertson :2015: Kate Ramsden :2017: Kevin Hutchens and Tyrinne Rutherford :2018: Kathleen Kennedy :2019: Sasha Brydon

References

External links

*{{Official website, aberdeentuc.blogspot.com 1868 establishments in Scotland Congress National trade union centres of the United Kingdom Trade unions established in 1868 Politics of Aberdeen Organisations based in Aberdeen Trades councils

History

Secretaries

Presidents

See also

Further reading

References

External links